Speaker A
How you going? In today's video, I'll show you how I built this walnut, I mean, knot walnut cabinet showcasing a few fun joinery techniques.
Watch how a walnut-look cabinet was designed and built on a budget using Tasmanian oak and clever joinery techniques.
Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.
Generated from the transcript and can be wrong — check the timestamp.
Key Takeaways
- Using affordable timber alternatives can achieve a walnut look within budget constraints.
- Pre-staining wood before glue-up prevents visible glue lines in dark finishes.
- Solid wood edges and domino joinery increase cabinet durability in commercial use.
- Designing on the go can lead to creative but challenging build problems to solve.
- Finishing techniques like multiple coats of hardwax oil and fine sanding enhance the final product.
What the video covers
- The video showcases the design and build process of a walnut-style cabinet using affordable timber alternatives.
- The cabinet was designed during a flight, focusing on client requirements and budget constraints.
- Key joinery techniques like domino joints and solid wood edges are demonstrated for durability.
- The creator explains the challenges of staining and finishing wood before glue-up to avoid visible glue lines.
- Tasmanian oak was chosen over expensive walnut to keep costs down while achieving a similar aesthetic.
- The video covers milling, gluing, and notching timber legs to support the cabinet structure.
- Design evaluation techniques such as the 'look away' method are used to refine the project.
- Safety and precision tips are shared, including slow cutting on a panel saw and taping glue areas.
- Finishing involves staining, applying hardwax oil, and buffing with fine sandpaper for a smooth surface.
- The final product is a handmade, budget-conscious cabinet that mimics walnut without the high price.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and project overview
- 00:20Designing the cabinet on a flight
- 00:43Client requirements and budget challenges
- 01:29SketchUp modeling and initial design
- 02:02Joinery techniques and solid wood edges
- 02:43Preparing surfaces and glue-up tips
- 03:42Building the timber legs
- 04:19Notching legs to support the cabinet
- 05:16Design evaluation method
- 06:06Timber selection and cost comparison
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
I designed this cabinet on a flight to Western Australia for a little summer getaway and somehow spent half the flight working anyway.
Speaker A
But, weirdly, I loved it. Designing is usually the thing I squeeze in after work when I'm tired, so sitting there with nowhere else to be was actually pretty great. Although, designing might be generous. Usually, I just draw something I think looks cool and leave
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future me an absolutely ridiculous problem to figure out how to build. And this one was definitely that.
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I actually had a bloke standing in the aisle watching me model it for about 5 minutes before I noticed. I can only imagine he was thinking, "Why is this guy designing the world's most overcomplicated coat rack?" What I actually was designing was a huge
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merchandise cabinet for a client who loved walnut, but not quite enough to pay for an entire cabinet made from it.
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So, I need to figure out how to get pretty close to what they wanted without the price tag that came with it. And that really wasn't the only problem I'd left myself to figure out.
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So, like any other project, it starts in SketchUp. And I was pretty lucky with this one because the client just gave me the dimensions and functions they wanted and said, "Go to town." So, we need to check off a few open
Speaker A
shelves, closed storage area, and a coat rack for merch. I really did like the way this looked, and so did they. I actually only drafted one version of this, which is mind-blowing. The only problem was I didn't really consider how I would build
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this bit or if my stain idea would actually pay off. It's kind of one of those "Oh, yeah, we can definitely stain it." Okay, since this is going in a commercial space and I can see it getting a lot of use, I'm going to opt
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for a solid wood edge on all the front and sides. Which you can see I'm going to domino on. This just lets me sleep at night knowing the edge is rock solid.
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And while I got the domino machine out, I may as well cut the joints in the divider for the rest of the cabinet.
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Also, because we don't want any finish where the glue is supposed to go, I'm going to tape over the joining areas.
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Now, I could skip this step if I was going to stain it after glue up, but let me be the first to tell you that dark stain after glue up is a horrible idea.
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Problems I've had with it is that the glue, even though it looks like you cleaned it all up with water, still somehow is in the wood grain and when you put really dark stain on it, you see a very visible glue line area where the
Speaker A
stain doesn't penetrate as much. I have learned my lesson with this, so I'm just going to stain before glue.
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Now, moving on to the timber legs for the cabinet, I'm aiming for a finished 60 mm dowel, so I'll need to glue two lengths together.
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If I have a lot to do like this, I'll always mill both sides flat and glue them up in one hit. Just make sure you keep tabs on where you put the glue.
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We're not trying to make a bench top here. Okay, to be honest, I was least confident in this part because one, I haven't really done this before, and two, I haven't really done this before.
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I guess it's like most things in woodworking, it's the boundaries you push that keep you on your toes, or clenching your butt because it usually involves something spinning at 12,000 RPM.
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So, what I am doing is solving that problem I made for myself earlier. I planned to notch this section out of the leg to then house the main cabinet and support it.
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All right, let's talk about design. I do the look away technique, which I coined myself.
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I basically get so used to looking at something that I don't see its good or bad bits anymore.
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And I've adopted this look away for a minute and then look at it with fresh eyes approach.
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Whatever stands out as good and bad in the first seconds when I look back, I note and change.
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And I do this until I'm happy with everything, or until I don't look at it and think, "What the heck is that?" All right, let's talk about the elephant in the room. Cash money. No, I'm kidding. What I'm going to talk about is
Speaker A
the difference between the timber we're using and walnut. I'm not sure what the going rate for walnut is in this part of the world, but walnut here is at a premium, and I mean premium. What I'm using is
Speaker A
Tasmanian oak, which is widely available and relatively affordable. It's usually pretty bland with a straight grain and pale tones.
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It goes for about $5,500 a cubic meter. I know. Don't ask why timber is priced like it's gold because when would you ever go to the hardware store and say, "I'd like a cubic meter of wood." Anyway, that's not the point. Walnut is,
Speaker A
however, so much more expensive. It's $12,000 a cubic meter. So, you can see already that after they pay a numpty like me to spend a week building it, the budget gets blown out pretty quickly.
Speaker A
This is the other bit I didn't really think through properly. I've never turned something 2.4 m long on the panel saw, and I was pretty scared it was going to bounce too much. So, I went really slow. Plus,
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I wasn't really sure if my rebates I cut would tear out while doing this either, so luckily it went totally fine.
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Apart from this part where I pushed my hammer into the blade and it caused a massive accident where I lost my eye.
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No, I'm just, I'm just kidding. Now, you didn't actually think I would just show you my finishing process without a paywall in Patreon, would you?
Speaker A
You're right. I won't put it behind a paywall, not because there even is a paywall to buy my expertise, but because I actually forgot to film doing the finishing process. But, basically it looks like this. Two coats of stain applied by a trowel,
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I mean, towel, and immediately wiped off dry, followed by three coats of hardwax oil rolled with a 4-mm nap roller.
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The this finishing trick is worthy of being held behind a Patreon paywall. I use this 1500 grit soft interface sandpaper which buffs the surface really smooth without changing the sheen.
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[clears throat] And if you're watching these videos and think that looks easy, well how about I share with you this cinematic masterpiece. This is actually how long it took me to slot in the divider.
Speaker A
So, here it is, the walnut not walnut cabinet display coat hanger. Handmade with, hopefully without looking, homemade.
Topics:woodworkingcabinet buildwalnut alternativeTasmanian oakjoinery techniquesdomino jointswood finishingstaining woodbudget woodworkinghandmade furniture
